Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect,comes from a family of public school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.

An appreciated little surprise in Education Secretary Arne Duncan 's big speech today, in which he seemed to put NCLB reauthorization on the legislative agenda for 2010: While reminiscing about Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," penned in 1963, Duncan mentioned the persistence of school segregation: This was nine years after the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools violated the Constitution, but most minorities were still isolated in their own classrooms. Many still are today and we must work together to change that. That's a significant hat-tip from an official not known for being deeply invested in this issue. But Duncan should put his agency's money where its mouth is. Currently, draft guidelines for the $4.3 billion Race to the Top grant program do not cite integration as a goal. Similarly, the topic never came up in Duncan's speech last month previewing the $650 million "Invest in Innovation" education reform program, another stimulus project. What...

During the last G-20 meeting, in April, I noted that the husbands of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner were no-shows for the big spouse photo-op . Well, they've done it again: According to Sandra McElwaine at The Daily Beast , neither gentleman will be appearing at a two-day "spousal program" hosted by Michelle Obama to coincide with this week's Pittsburgh G-20 meeting. (There's no word yet on whether India's First Gentleman, former politician Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat , will attend the spouse-only festivities.) Eighteen wives will meet at Rosemount, the country estate of Theresa Heinz Kerry . They'll be entertained there by the Pittsburgh Philharmonic Orchestra’s Jazz Trio and are expected to dine on organic, locally grown produce. During the trip, the wives will also meet cellist Yo-Yo Ma and visit the Andy Warhol Museum, whose director plans to open one of the artist's famous time capsules in front of the dignitaries. It sounds like fun!...

You may have heard about the Kentucky Census worker, Bill Sparkman , whose body was found in a state park with the word "fed" scrawled on it -- on Sept. 12, the same day as nationwide "tea party" protests against President Obama 's health reform effort. Well, the story is even more tragic: It turns out Sparkman was a single father who recently survived cancer and earned a college degree through online correspondence courses. In addition to working a few days a month for the Census, he was a substitute teacher. One of Sparkman's Western Governor’s University professors found his story so inspiring that Sparkman was asked to travel to Salt Lake City to address his graduating class. The local paper wrote a story about the event. "There are no failures," Sparkman said in his speech, "just teaching moments.” -- Dana Goldstein

Obama's entire address to the United Nations this morning is worth a read, but I just want to highlight this section on Israel/Palestine: We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel, and we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. The time has come to re-launch negotiations – without preconditions – that address the permanent-status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians; borders, refugees and Jerusalem. The goal is clear: two states living side by side in peace and security – a Jewish State of Israel, with true security for all Israelis; and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people. Note the choice of language: not just "a state" for Palestinians, but one that is "viable," "independent," and "contiguous" -- code words for an end to Israeli army checkpoints in the...